-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:Meet Rose and Ruby: sisters, best friends, confidantes, and conjoined twins. When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out to write her autobiography, it inevitably becomes the story of her short but extraordinary life with Ruby, the beautiful one. From their awkward first steps--Ruby's arm curled around Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose's hips-- to the friendships they gradually build for themselves in the small town of Leaford, this is the profoundly affecting chronicle of an incomparable life journey.
Meet Rose and Ruby: sisters, best friends, confidantes,
and conjoined twins. Since their birth, Rose and Ruby Darlen have been
known simply as "the girls." They make friends, fall in love, have jobs,
love their parents, and follow their dreams. But the Darlens are
special. Now nearing their 30th birthday, they are history's oldest
craniopagus twins, joined at the head by a spot the size of a bread
plate.
When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out to write her autobiography, it
inevitably becomes the story of her short but extraordinary life with
Ruby, the beautiful one. From their awkward first steps--Ruby's arm
curled around Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose's
hips-- to the friendships they gradually build for themselves in the
small town of Leaford, this is the profoundly affecting chronicle of an
incomparable life journey.
As Rose and Ruby's story builds to an unforgettable conclusion, Lansens
aims at the heart of human experience--the hardship of loss and
struggles for independence, and the fundamental joy of simply living a
life. This is a breath taking novel, one that no reader will soon
forget, a heartrending story of love between sisters.
If you've enjoyed books such as The Time Traveler's Wife, you are likely to find that Lansen's blend of tragic-comedy will draw you in and leave you well satisfied...continued
Full Review
(337 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Conjoined twins
occur in about
40,000 births
but only about
once in every
200,000 live
births. Craniopagus-twins
occur in only
about one in
every 10 million
live births.
Did you
know?
Medical advances
have led to the
discovery of
another type of
twin, known as
tetragametic
chimeras,
where the
embryos of two
...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked The Girls, try these:
by Sarah Elaine Smith
Published 2020
Consumed by the longing for a different life, a teenager flees her family and carefully slips into another -- replacing a girl whose own sudden disappearance still haunts the town.
by Jacqueline Woodson
Published 2017
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming delivers her first adult novel in twenty years.
.gif)
They say that in the end truth will triumph, but it's a lie.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
